The debate over California's budget is now being called a state-wide political war, but the casulaties are those who rely on the services bearing the brunt of the cuts. How do you know your state is in trouble? Perhaps when The Economist devotes 14 pages of analysis to piecing together why the one-time gold standard of American democracy is now synonymous with “dysfunction” and legislative stalemate, it’s time to do some soul-searching.

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The state faces a deficit of almost $26 billion. Gov. Jerry Brown proposed to cut half that amount in spending and raise the other half through the extension of tax increases passed in 2009. The cuts, which mostly affect the sick, the poor and the elderly, have passed, but negotiations in the state legislature broke down over taxes, leaving the state with the possibility of a budget balanced on the backs of those who can afford it least.

Neon Tommy staffers dug deep to find the people who would be hit hardest by the cuts. Services and institutions in peril include health care, courts, mental health, child care, parks and higher education ($500 million each from the UC and Cal-State systems). Brown’s pledge to spare public K-12 was contingent on the tax extensions, which are looking less and less likely to go on the ballot.

With his budget, Brown has tried to work out the math without the typical creative accounting tricks (“kicking the can down the road,” as he calls it) that has created more long-term problems. But at the end of that equation, it’s the real people who depend on state services come up short. If a deal can’t be reached in the state government, their pain will likely be doubled.